Our Beloved Temple

1

And finally, dearly-beloved brethren, let me once more direct
your attention to the pressing claims of the Mashriqu'l-Adhkár, our
beloved Temple. Need I remind you of the imperative necessity of
carrying out to a successful conclusion, while there is yet time, the
great enterprise to which, before the eyes of a watching world, we
stand committed? Need I stress the great damage which further
delay in the prosecution of this divinely-appointed task must, even
in these critical and unforeseen circumstances, inflict upon the prestige
of our beloved Cause? I am, I can assure you, acutely conscious
of the stringency of the circumstances with which you are faced, the
embarrassments under which you labor, the cares with which you
are burdened, the pressing urgency of the demands that are being
incessantly made upon your depleted resources. I am, however, still
more profoundly aware of the unprecedented character of the opportunity
which it is your privilege to seize and utilize. I am aware
of the incalculable blessings that must await the termination of a
collective enterprise which, by the range and quality of the sacrifices
it entailed, deserves to be ranked among the most outstanding
examples of Bahá'í solidarity ever since those deeds of brilliant
heroism immortalized the memory of the heroes of Nayríz, of
Zanján, and of Tabarsí. I appeal to you, therefore, friends and
fellow-disciples of Bahá'u'lláh, for a more abundant measure of
self-sacrifice, for a higher standard of concerted effort, for a still
more compelling evidence of the reality of the faith that glows
within you.

2

And in this fervent plea, my voice is once more reinforced by
the passionate, and perhaps, the last, entreaty, of the Greatest Holy
Leaf, whose spirit, now hovering on the edge of the Great Beyond,
longs to carry on its flight to the Abhá Kingdom, and into the presence
of a Divine, an almighty Father, an assurance of the joyous
consummation of an enterprise, the progress of which has so greatly
brightened the closing days of her earthly life. That the American
believers, those stout-hearted pioneers of the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh,
will unanimously respond, with that same spontaneous generosity,
that same measure of self-sacrifice, as have characterized their
response to her appeals in the past, no one who is familiar with the
vitality of their faith can possibly question.

3

Would to God that by the end of the spring of the year 1933
the multitudes who, from the remote corners of the globe, will
throng the grounds of the Great Fair to be held in the neighborhood
of that hallowed shrine may, as a result of your sustained
spirit of self-sacrifice, be privileged to gaze on the arrayed splendor
of its dome--a dome that shall stand as a flaming beacon and
a symbol of hope amidst the gloom of a despairing world.